The 81-mile Trans-Panama pipeline (TPP) originally carried crude oil through Panama from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. PTP will modernize the pipeline and reverse the direction of flow, significantly reducing delivery times and transportation costs to the US West Coast.
Previously, crude cargoes sailing from east to west took an additional 30 days to travel thousands of miles around Cape Horn, South America. Under the seven-year agreement, BP will acquire five million barrels of storage and commit to pipeline shipments of 65,000 barrels per day.
Following completion of the project, BP’s two-million barrel capacity very large crude carriers will be able to carry Angolan and other crudes to the port of Chiriqui Grande, in Panama’s Bocas del Toro province, on the Caribbean side for the journey across the isthmus of Panama.
Crude will be piped to the port of Charco Azul on the Pacific coast of Panama, where it will be received by tankers for the journey to refineries on the US West Coast. Construction is expected to take about two years.
Bob Malone, chairman and president of BP America, said: This agreement will allow BP to access strategic infrastructure that will greatly reduce transportation time, lowering logistic costs and increase flexibility of supply to US West Coast refineries.
